Back in the Saddle
by Painsmyenvying
Summary: [Second drabble in my MGR series. Follow-up to 'Smile'] Sam is back, and Raiden demands an explanation.


In any other situation, on any other day, Sam would have laughed. Walking side by side, neither he nor Raiden had uttered a word for the past half an hour. Raiden didn't need to — anger literally seemed to ooze from every inch of his cyborg body —, and Sam knew better than to say anything that would provoke Raiden's wrath. The samurai usually wasn't one to bite his tongue, but he'd already taken a punch from Raiden earlier and repeating the experience wasn't exactly on the top of his list right now. His head was still pounding, his bottom lip was swollen, and a bruise was starting to appear on one side of his jaw. And as if that wasn't already enough, _of course_ Raiden had refused to give him back his Murasama for now. He had muttered something like "_I'm not stupid_" and had ordered Sam to get his ass up and start walking. Sam didn't have any other option but to obey, if only to have his precious blade return to her Master. Or so he hoped.

Sam had no clue as to where Raiden was leading them. The last thing he'd found out while tracking down Raiden was that he had left Maverick and was now on his own personal raid. He also had no idea where his family lived, but the samurai doubted Raiden was living with them again. And even if he were, he wouldn't take Sam there. That train of thought was enough to distract Sam from their silent marching, so when Raiden let out an exasperated grunt and shoved him into the next best wall, the Samurai yelped — mostly in surprise.

"What the f—"

"How did you do it, Sam?"

"Do wha— _fuck_, Raiden, you're choking me!" Sam's strangled words did nothing for Raiden to ease the grip he had on him.

"You know very well what I'm talking about." Raiden's look was so intense that Sam felt like it was literally piercing him. He frowned uncomfortably, until it dawned on him and his eyes widened. Lifting a single hand, Sam tried to pry Raiden off his throat; talking was difficult with the cyborg choking him, and it also wasn't doing any good to his head.

"—Let me… _breathe_, god damn it." Sam might've been toe to toe with Raiden when it came to being a talented killing machine; he was faster and possibly more skilled with his sword, but that goddamned pile of high-tech metal and pent up rage was obviously stronger than him. The samurai gave an annoyed grunt, tugging at Raiden's grip again. Finally, Raiden gave in and somewhat loosened the choking hold he had him in.

"Now, answer me."

"How I survived?"

Raiden's eye narrowed; he seemed to hold his breath. Sam chuckled, though it sounded more like a croak. He leaned forward, smirking. "It has your head going all crazy, right? You can't compute. You killed me, yet here I am." God, he couldn't help himself. He just _had_ to taunt everything and everyone, everywhere, at any time.

"Just tell me what I want-" _deserve_, said his mind — "to know." It wasn't exactly the Ripper voice, but he was getting there.

Sam _still_ couldn't help it. He inched forward some more. "Make me."

The cyborg resisted the urge to draw back, but his free hand immediately went to fumble with the Murasama's handle and in the blink of an eye, there wasn't a clawed hand anymore but a sharp, crimson glistening blade against Sam's throat. The samurai swallowed, but otherwise seemed unfazed.

"No need to get violent so soon, y'know. You're ruining the foreplay. Raiden, I was joking, for fuck's sake. _Joking_." Sam added quickly, rolling his eyes as the sword dared to inch closer. Fabulous - he was being threatened with his own blade for the second time in, what, maybe an hour? _Unbelievable_.

"—Spare me your _jokes_, jerk. I'm a married man."

However, the samurai didn't miss that split of a second where Raiden had looked genuinely confused… until the penny dropped.

"Party pooper," Sam muttered with a chuckle and patted Raiden's hand, on a failed attempt to get him to lower the sword. It didn't seem like Raiden was going to let him go without an explanation. "—Fine. Story time." He'd spoken again before Raiden could do anything else - like chop off his head, for example.

Raiden observed him, icy blue meeting deep russet. Sam returned his gaze with all the honesty he could manage. He wasn't going to tell him any lies, after all. Their gazes remained locked for a moment, and maybe that was enough for the cyborg, because he lowered the sword, quickly sheathing it and taking a step away from Sam. He crossed his arms over his chest and just kept looking at the samurai, waiting for him to start talking. Sam took his cue, stretching himself carefully and leaning back against the wall.

"Well, first off… you didn't kill me."

"_You don't say_."

"Hey, no interruptions, pretty boy."

A guttural sound came from said pretty boy. "Samuel…"

Sam chuckled. Had Raiden just used his whole name?

"On that highway… Wolfy showed up before you did. You know that. And we had quite some time for a little chat. You know that, too. Before we fought, he told you he'd asked me about my intentions and reasons; that's true, too. My answer to that… well, you somehow had gotten me to question everything I'd believed in for the last years. Astonishing, I must say. So Wolfy and I worked out a plan. I was going to challenge you to a fight, and of course you were going to say yes, you had more than enough reasons to do it," Sam snickered, shrugging slightly.

"Anyways, like I said... I wasn't very sure I wanted to continue working for Desperado, but it wasn't like I could just go up to Armstrong and tell him I was quitting. So I decided to play it all on one card. If I killed you, well, then there would be nobody to openly stop Armstrong so I would have to suck it up and stay there— but if you hadn't been able to defeat me, there was no way you'd take on Armstrong and come out on top. On the other hand, if you killed me... if you defeated me, that was basically like giving me a free ride out of Desperado. And maybe, just _maybe_,I was even going to help you defeat Armstrong in that case."

Sam saw Raiden's confused face, but he kept talking.

"I hoped you'd defeat me, but then again, I didn't want to die, either— not if I could avoid it." His eyes lit up in that moment and his trademark smirk slowly crept on his face. "So here's the catch. I'd wait for you to deal me a critical blow, and then... here's when Wolfy comes in. I told him that the moment I fell to the ground, struck down by you, he'd have to confirm my death, even if it wasn't true. And you would believe it. He told me how much you trust him; after all, he's an AI and he's never lied to you, so why would he start now, right?" Sam gave Raiden a quick wink, enjoying every little shift of his face while he told the cyborg what he wanted to know. "... But it turns out that I was probably the only one who treated Wolfy well during his time at Desperado, so you can't blame him for this."

Raiden shook his head and looked away from Sam. He felt stupid; God, he should have suspected Wolf and Sam could have planned something; instead he had reacted exactly like Sam had predicted. Shaken from the actual battle, he had found it strange that the samurai fell so quickly, but it turned out he barely had cyborg enhancements, _and Wolf had confirmed his death_, so he hadn't given it another thought. Sam was dead. And god, he had to admit that somewhere, deep inside, he had felt a sting of... _something_. Was it regret? He'd thought that if they had met in another situation, maybe they'd even gotten along... And Wolf being bitter about the whole ordeal hadn't been a good help, either. But he had quickly gotten rid of those thoughts; they were stupid and made no sense. Sam had just added more grief to his life, he had just been another obstacle — a very annoying one —, and now that obstacle was finally gone.

Raiden cleared his throat, not really wanting to see the samurai's face just yet. He still didn't know what to make of everything he had just been told. Yes, it might have sounded simple the way Sam had put it, but in Raiden's head it all was a big mess. He should've seen it coming, but no, all of this had just overwhelmed him.

On the other side, Sam was feeling quite amused again, now that he had the upper hand in the situation, and was pretty sure that Raiden was too astonished to attack him for now.

"But... your sword. There was an ID lock. It unlocked a few hours later... because you were supposed to be dead, and when Wolf saw Armstrong had broken my blade, he gave it to me. I defeated Armstrong with your sword."

"All part of my plan. The ID lock unlocked a few hours later because _it's set to unlock _if I'm out of a certain reach for a certain amount of time." Sam waved his hand. "I told Wolf to take my sword with him... not in my honour, not to preserve my memory - no, I told him to take my sword so _you _would have the proper weapon to fight Armstrong. My Murasama ain't a _tool of justice_, she's a killer. And see, I saved your ass in the end, didn't I?"

"Don't you dare get cocky now, Sam. I should be punching your face into tomorrow for all of this... You deserve it." That had been a threat, yet no attempts of actually carrying it out followed Raiden's words. Of course Sam noticed, and his trademark smirk was back in place again.

"Y'know what I deserve? My blade. And maybe a _I'm so glad you're alive, Sam_."

Raiden snorted. "In your dreams."

With a final glare, Raiden turned around and started walking away. So it seemed the obstacle was back... but was Sam really an obstacle this time? After all, there was no Desperado anymore. _Please don't make me regret this, Sam._

The cyborg stopped in his tracks, turning to face a somewhat annoyed Sam. Raiden _almost _smirked.

"Jack, I'm serious. My—"

"What are you going to do now?"

"What?"

"What are your plans?"

"Uh, doing what I've always done? I mean it's not like I can do much more than dispensing—"

"— justice, yeah... Well, I could use a hand."

Sam's eyes widened. Was Raiden _really _suggesting they teamed up? "You mean... you and me..."

Raiden shrugged, showing the tiniest hint of a smile as he gestured Sam to go with him. "I have no reason to wield your blade in your name anymore."


End file.
